ELR Ghost Trains run 29 to 31 October, Jersey Girls pumpkin picking is £13 from 24 October, and Nuttall Park's lantern parade is at 5pm on Halloween.

Halloween in Bury is mostly a Ramsbottom affair, plus a pumpkin field on the north-west edge of Bury. The East Lancashire Railway’s Halloween Ghost Trains run from Bury Bolton Street on Thursday 29 to Saturday 31 October, Jersey Girls opens its pumpkin field off Woodhill Road every day from Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October, and Ramsbottom’s Halloween Lantern Parade goes round Nuttall Park at 5pm on Saturday 31 October. Halloween itself falls on the Saturday at the end of half term.

The quick answer

  • Ghost Trains: 29, 30 and 31 October, departures from Bury Bolton Street at 5.30pm, 7pm and 8.30pm, about an hour each. Book through the East Lancashire Railway.
  • Pumpkin picking: Jersey Girls, Woodhill Road, BL8 1BS, 24 to 31 October, £13 per pumpkin picker with up to two people along for free, per the farm’s ticket site.
  • Free: the Haunted Garden on Stubbins Lane (24 and 25 October, 3.30pm to 7.30pm) and the Lantern Parade in Nuttall Park (31 October, 5pm).

Everything else on during the school holiday, from drama days at The Met to science shows, is on our October half-term page.

Halloween Ghost Trains, East Lancashire Railway

This year’s story is the “Swamp Monster of Irwell Vale”. You start with a walkthrough on the footbridge at Bury Bolton Street, where the railway warns you to “expect jump scares”, then Vampire Brian and Veronica the Witch see you off on the “Scream Train” for a round trip of about an hour. The railway encourages fancy dress. All details are from the railway’s event page, read on 4 October.
Dates Thursday 29, Friday 30, Saturday 31 October
Departures from Bury 5.30pm, 7pm, 8.30pm
Length About 1 hour, start and finish at Bury Bolton Street
Arrive At least 20 minutes before your train
Ticket prices Not readable: the ticket site blocks automated readers, see below
Heywood shuttle £3.50 adult, £2.50 child (3 to 17), Ghost Train ticket needed too
Dogs Assistance dogs only
Wheelchair users One adapted carriage per train, book on 0333 320 2830
Carers One free carer ticket per party, through the same number

Prices. Tickets are sold through the railway’s QuayTickets booking site, which would not load for us, so we have not printed a price rather than guess one. The prices show when you pick a departure.

Food. The buffet on Platform 3 serves drinks, snacks and pies, the Trackside Bar is on Platform 2, and the railway says there will be a barbecue on Platforms 3 and 4.

Parking. The railway says parking around Bolton Street is “very limited” and suggests its Heywood shuttle instead: park at Heywood station and take a diesel train to Bury, with return. Shuttles leave Heywood at 4.55pm, 6.20pm and 7.50pm to meet the 5.30pm, 7pm and 8.30pm Ghost Trains.

Pumpkin picking at Jersey Girls, Woodhill Road

Jersey Girls, the ice cream dairy at Higher Woodhill Farm, runs JG Pumpkin Pickin’ in booked sessions every day from Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October. Each session lasts about an hour: you pick a pumpkin in the field, then carve it in the farm’s “spooky barn”.

  • £13.00 per pumpkin picker. Tickets are sold per pumpkin, and each picker can bring up to two more visitors.
  • Tickets are non-refundable, and the farm asks you to check your start time when booking.
  • Free parking on site. Bring wellies.
  • Pumpkins and Prosecco, for adults: Friday 30 October, 6.30pm, an hour and a half of carving with a glass of fizz, from £25.

All from the Jersey Girls events page, read on 4 October. Session times only show when you book.

Free Halloween events in Ramsbottom

  • The Haunted Garden, The Ashton Goit Garden, Stubbins Lane, BL0 0PR. Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October, 3.30pm to 7.30pm. Walk-through displays, craft stalls, hot and cold food and face painting, in its sixth year. Free entry, cash donations welcome (listing).
  • Halloween Lantern Parade, Nuttall Park, Nuttall Hall Road, BL0 9LZ. Saturday 31 October. The tea room opens at 10am, cake, soup and hot dogs from 3pm, and the parade goes round the park at 5pm (listing).

Halloween parties

  • Family Halloween Party with Magic Mark, Ramsbottom Civic Hall, Saturday 31 October, 6pm to 8.30pm. Tickets through Skiddle.
  • Halloween Party at Irwell Works Brewery, Irwell Street, Ramsbottom, Saturday 31 October from 8pm. No price or details published yet (listing).
  • InTheBag Presents Halloween, Pink Rhino basement, 10 Market Place, Ramsbottom, Saturday 31 October. A multi-genre night closing with a drum and bass set from Double U, over from the Netherlands. The organisers say tickets will be limited and details will follow on their social accounts; the other floors stay open and fancy dress is encouraged (listing).

What is not on

Bury Market’s events page lists no Halloween event this year, and The Rock shopping centre has published nothing for Halloween. Bury Council’s newsroom has no Halloween release either. We checked all three on 4 October and will add anything they announce.

Getting there and parking

Bolton Street station is five minutes’ walk from Bury Interchange; tram frequencies are on our tram times page. Council car parks in Bury town centre are free after 6pm, which covers the later Ghost Train departures, and the tariffs are on our parking page. For Ramsbottom, the East Lancashire Railway and the 472 and 474 buses avoid the hunt for a space on Bridge Street. Check our roadworks page in the week before for closures on the A56 and the M66.

Sources